Estimated read time: 8-9 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — What version of Jae Crowder are the Jazz getting?
That's the question on everyone's mind, even for those fans who recently underwent surgery.
There's the 2016-17 version of Jae Crowder, the Boston Crowder, in which he was one of the best role players in the NBA. Physical on defense, a shot-making attacker on offense, Crowder took the advantages that Brad Stevens' system gave him and ran with them.
But the Cleveland 2017-18 version of Crowder is legitimately one of the worst rotation players in the league: a low-usage inefficient player who contributes to the Cavaliers being the worst defense in the league.
So what's the truth with Crowder? How will he fit in Utah under Quin Snyder for the rest of this year and the two years after that?
Let's start here: yes, the most obvious factor of Crowder's downturn is his shooting stroke. After making nearly 40 percent of his threes in Boston, he's down to 32.5 percent in Cleveland. That's true of his midrange shots too. He was at 37 percent last year from 10 feet to the 3-point line, this year, he's at 27 percent.
It's not that Crowder got more open shots last year, either: the percentage of his shots that he takes that are open or wide open are approximately the same between the two years. He's just missing more of them.
Looking at the rest of his career, it's hard to not call Crowder's shooting in his final year in Boston an outlier. He's never eclipsed 34 percent in any other year. It does seem like Crowder added some arc to his shot in Boston that has gone missing somewhat in Cleveland, so maybe there's something reparable there. Still, it's probably safe to expect Crowder to be a 33 percent shooter and be happy with potential growth while in a Jazz jersey.
But if everything but the shooting percentages were the same, that'd be one thing. But every aspect of Crowder's game seems to have declined. This year's version of Crowder seems downright lethargic.
There are a few differing theories on why this is. The first is that Crowder's athleticism has permanently declined after some injuries. Crowder sprained his MCL in 2015 after a collision with J.R. Smith, and various ankle injuries since then have sapped him, perhaps permanently, of the quick bursts needed to reliably drive past defenders, or stay in front of them. That's the theory of The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor, concluding "He's just a completely overrated player."
I see why he thinks so. Crowder has exactly zero dunks on the season so far, a shocking stat for any NBA player of Crowder's height. His defense on isolation plays has gone from very good (allowing just 0.73 points per possession last year) to poor (allowing 1.0 points per possession this year). Athletic indicators like rebounds, steals, and blocks have all decreased on a per-minute basis this year. Crowder's fouls are up, maybe because he's struggling to defend with a lowered burst. It's a legitimately plausible theory.
--
The second possibility is that it's due to his role in Cleveland coach Ty Lue's system: They stick Crowder off the ball, don't give him a chance to get engaged, and then just ask him to shoot whenever he catches the ball. That's the kind of thing that drives players crazy. They love to be involved in all facets of the game, not just catch-and-shoot shots.
As you'd expect, a huge percentage of Crowder's offensive opportunities on both teams come from him spacing in the corner or on the wing, and teammates kicking it out to him after a drive. The percentage of times he got the ball in those situations hasn't changed much between last year and this year.
But what has changed is what Crowder does once the ball is kicked out to him. In Boston, sure, he shot that effective 3-point shot regularly. But he also frequently drove to the basket, attacking that closeout by getting to the rim. He did that really efficiently in Boston over 100 times last season.
This year? He rarely attacks. Only 33 times in 52 games has Crowder driven to the rim after catching the ball on the wing. Even Joe Ingles has attacked closeouts more times. Why? Perhaps it's the injury, perhaps teams are giving him more space (and therefore less opportunity to drive) because of the 3-point downturn, or perhaps it's because the Cavaliers have told him to just shoot the ball.
Crowder's role has changed in other ways, too. In Boston, Crowder ran pick and roll as the ball handler 97 times. In Cleveland, he's only done it eight times. He had handoff plays in Boston 58 times, in Cleveland, five times. I get it: Cleveland has LeBron James. You want the ball in his hands. But Crowder was actually decent in pick-and-roll opportunities with Boston, and it's been nearly totally eliminated from his game.
Instead, Crowder has set the ball screens in Cleveland, and it turns out he's not all that good at doing that, then popping or rolling to the basket. I can't imagine the Jazz making Crowder do much of that. They'll use him as part of the drive-and-kick cyclone like every other Jazz perimeter player. "We maybe need Jae to do more so than the other teams he’s played on before, even Boston," Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey said.
There's a theory that the Jazz subscribe to deeply: that when you play five-man basketball, where everybody gets to touch the ball, everyone plays harder on both ends. It's why they give Rudy Gobert touches of the ball on the elbow of the floor; it's not that Gobert's particularly good with the ball in his hands there, but it keeps him engaged, rolling hard, fighting for rebounds, and being the fierce defender that he can be on defense.
In Boston, Crowder was a part of a similar style of play, where the Celtics needed all five players to succeed. Cleveland couldn't be about that, and many wonder if that's led to Crowder's stuffy play this season.
"We’ve seen enough to think that he can mesh very well with how we play," Lindsey said.
On the other end of the floor, Cleveland's defense has been bad with or without Crowder. Has he really had the opportunity to succeed? Playing with Gobert behind him will clear up some of his mistakes.
--
The third explanation is a really tragic, but logical one. Crowder's mother, Helen, died of cancer at age 51 during the summer, literally five minutes after Crowder told her he was traded to Cleveland. Crowder spent much of his offseason with his dying mother, and after she died in September, spent weeks flying cross-country to tend to his family's needs. He came to training camp this year not in his typical shape as a result and has been behind the 8-ball ever since.
His Jazz teammates know that kind of loss. Ricky Rubio's mother also died of cancer during an offseason, his in 2016. Like Crowder, Rubio began the season after the tragedy with some of his most unfocused performances. Rubio ended up settling down after the All-Star break and had the best stretch of games in his career to that point. Perhaps the same can happen with Crowder.
Those last two explanations give the Jazz optimism that they can get the best out of Crowder, who is 27 years old.
That best-case scenario probably looks different than most fans realize: Crowder's offensive plus-minus has been better for his whole career than his defensive plus-minus. His defense is visually impressive, as he gets some terrific steals with his strong hands, but there's a sense that he's not all that impactful in the overall scheme of things. In every year of his career, opponents have taken more threes with him in the game than when he's not, as Crowder loses focus or gambles down low.
On the offensive end, though, he can be just as versatile as he showed in his last year in Boston, taking and making some difficult shots and driving to the rim. He's not a great playmaker, though is capable of making the right read occasionally. Cutting is probably his best offensive skill, and the Jazz have missed some doses of that with Thabo Sefolosha out.
Crowder finished 20th in ESPN's real plus-minus statistic as a result of that offensive versatility, and the Jazz hope he can be similarly impactful in Utah.
The point of trading Rodney Hood was to turn a short-term asset into a long-term one. But for the Jazz to win the Crowder trade, they'll have to get the most from his talents.
